The Announcement
by Cagliari
Summary: When Sarah drunkenly sent out her graduation announcement to one Goblin King, she wasn't expecting his prompt R.S.V.P. With graduation in three weeks, she thinks she'll have that time to prepare herself, but, unfortunately, Jareth has other ideas.
1. Chapter 1

**disclaimer: I do not profit from anything Labyrinth-related. It does not belong to me.**

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><p><span>Chapter One: In Which a Good Idea is Suddenly a Bad One<span>

_Announcing the graduation of  
><em>_Sarah Marie Williams  
><em>_From the  
><em>_Rochester Institute of Technology  
><em>_On June 13,__1990  
><em>_With a Bachelor of Science in Psychology_

Jareth scowled. She had even sent a picture with the announcement; a beautiful, fair-skinned girl with leaf-green eyes and chocolate brown locks tumbling down her shoulders smiled serenely at him from the photo. Had he possessed a scrap of self-dignity, he would have burned it on the spot. Or given it to his goblins, who would have no doubt found something amusing to do with it. But he couldn't, naturally, and slid it into his vest for safekeeping, some place close to him.

Not attending was out of the question – this announcement was a direct taunt. He felt a smirk play about on his lips as he envisioned her reaction to seeing him in the crowd, maybe even sitting next to her parents and brother. Somehow, the phrase _"It's not fair!" _come to mind, complete with indignant foot-stomping and huffing.

Oh, yes. He would definitely be there.

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><p>It had been a rash decision, really.<p>

But four years in college had unwound Sarah Williams into a rather easy-going girl, if not a little mischievous. And after a night of a little drinking and some prodding from her friends, she had given them an edited version of a man named Jareth whom she had met when she was sixteen and hadn't spoken to since. One of them had mentioned how it was a pity that she didn't know where he lived, or she could have sent him a graduation announcement to show that she still thought of him (though Sarah hadn't elaborated how she and the man had spent their time, her friends had filled in the blanks with their own assumptions) every night. And it had sounded like a good idea at the time.

Though that could be said for anything suggested under the influence of alcohol.

She had all been quite sure it was a vague dream until she woke up the next morning to Hoggle telling her through her mirror that he had delivered the announcement that she had given him the night before personally.

"And what did he do?" She had asked nervously, while massaging her throbbing head.

"Scowled a lot. Looked mad. But then he got that look on his face..."

"What look?"

"The look he gets when he's 'bout to poof a goblin into the bog."

Great.

"Oh my God, I feel like shit."

Maddie rolled over on her bed, and Sarah flapped her hands at Hoggle, who got the message and disappeared from the mirror. The blond-haired girl must have seen something, though, for she stared at the mirror for a few moments longer than usual, but then shrugged and dragged her feet over from the end of the bed and placed them on the floor.

"Maybe if you wouldn't drink so much," Sarah teased.

She snorted. "Yeah, maybe." She gave Sarah a sly look. "But some night, eh?"

Sarah flushed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, please. You seemed to be very fond of your mystery Brit last night."

_I called Jareth British? _A racking of her brains brought forth a memory of practically swooning about him to her friends, imitating his definitely-English accent. So she had.

She shrugged. "I was probably over-exaggerating. Drunk, you know."

Maddie smirked. "Well, I hope you weren't exaggerating when you were talking about his c-"

Their door was almost smashed down by a brown-haired woman with bright blue eyes – Mackenzie Elliot, who lived in a dorm two floors beneath them.

"Did I hear 'cock'?"

"Almost. And keep it down, will you, I have a headache."

Mackenzie grinned. "Lightweight."

"Just because _I_ haven't been drinking since I was twelve-"

Sarah left them to it as she went about the room, pulling clothes out of her drawers to get dressed for the day. She certainly wasn't about to tell them that she had conveniently found out where her mysterious Brit lived after all and had indeed sent him an announcement – that would only lead to more admiring comments about what he had in his pants. Comments that Sarah would prefer not to hear, because then she wouldn't be caught lying when she disagreed with them. After wrestling a pair of shorts free from where they had been tangled around a pair of stockings, she straightened up.

And promptly gasped. Mackenzie and Maddie continued their light bickering, unaware of what had appeared on Sarah's dresser.

It was a brown and white feather, and it was sitting on top of something. She brushed it aside hesitantly to see what it was hiding, registering that it was still warm, as though it had just been flush against the body of a living animal. There was a simple scrap of parchment underneath, bearing one simple word penned in an elegant hand:

_Attending_.

She felt her face pale considerably – graduation was only three weeks away. Would that be enough to steel herself for another encounter with the Goblin King?

'_Maybe he'll just come, watch, and then leave...'_

But even as she was daring to hope that, more words melted out of the page before her eyes:

_We have a lot of catching up to do, Sarah._

'…_or maybe not.'_

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><p><strong>Will probably be completely light-hearted and soft. I received my graduation announcements today, and this thought just kind of crossed my mind. Needless to say, it entertained me enough to write this ;D<strong>

**r&r, yes?**


	2. Chapter 2

**disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth**

**uploaded so fast due to awesome reader response! I'll try to get a chapter up every few days, which shouldn't be hard. These short, light chapters really agree with me.**

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><p><span>Chapter Two: In Which a Midnight Visitor is Ousted, and the Morning After<span>

It was the middle of the night. There was a weight at the foot of her bed. Still more asleep than she was awake, Sarah gave it an experimental nudge. It was warm and, somehow, both firm yet soft. A person?

"Maddie?"

"I don't think so."

That was a man's voice. Jolted awake, she sat bolt upright. "Brandon?"

"Two strikes." His soft voice became touched with a certain coolness that hinted at jealousy. "Who's Brandon?"

Sarah was fully awake now, and with the sleep cleared from her head, she recognized the familiar lilt to his voice. Furious, her hands fisted in her blankets, and she gave the sheets a vicious tug. There was a thud and a yelp of surprise as he slid off of her bed and onto the floor.

Maddie practically flew out of bed. "What was that?"

Sarah stared triumphantly at the patch of carpet where the King had been sprawled just moments before. "It came from upstairs," she lied smoothly, her head falling back to her pillows even though she knew sleep would be hard to come by again tonight. "Go back to sleep."

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><p>He picked himself up off the floor of his throne room, rubbing his stinging backside.<p>

_Damn her._

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><p>"It's the perfect daaaay, nothing's standing in my way!"<p>

Sarah rolled onto her stomach with her pillow over her head. "I swear to God, if you don't _shut up_-"

Her roommate swept the covers off of her and she gave a half-hearted shriek as the cool air hit her body. "Hey!"

"Sarah Marie Williams," Maddie said bossily, her hands on her hips. "We did not just finish our finals to sit around in bed all day!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Just look at you!" Maddie tut-tutted as she wagged her finger in Sarah's direction. "It's a wonderful spring morning, the birds are singing, and Brandon-is-here-visiting-for-the-weekend-can-I-borrow-your-car?"

Sarah rolled over onto her elbow, her other arm draped across her hip as she eyed Maddie shrewdly. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last bit."

She gave her most winning smile. "Brandon is here for the weekend, he just called. And I kind of need a car If I'm going to go meet him, you know? So can I borrow yours?"

Sarah's car still had the dents from the last time she had let Maddie borrow it. But maybe she could work out a deal. "You get my car on one condition."

Maddie raised her hands in a celebratory kind of dance. "Just name it!"

Sarah got out of bed and padded over to her desk where she had left her jacket the previous night, slung over the back of the chair. She took her time fishing around in the pockets for her keys, and when she finally turned around, the keys dangling from her pinky finger, Maddie looked as though she might have an aneurism.

"We do not talk about Thursday night. Ever."

"Thursday ni…oh, you mean Jar-"

"Starting now."

Sarah could tell Maddie was going through a serious internal debate – on one hand, she had Sarah Wiliiams who, while not exactly ice queen extraordinaire, didn't go through many boyfriends suddenly bringing up a mystery British man. On the other hand, she had her boyfriend who went to school in Florida who she rarely got to see the entire year, save for major holidays, and she didn't have a car with her on campus.

It was a mean card to play, yes, but it was almost worth it to watch Maddie go cross-eyed from frustration.

"Fine," she finally managed to growl, snatching the keys from Sarah's fingers. "But just because I can't ask you anything doesn't mean that Mac and Brenna can't."

Smiling lazily, Sarah fell back onto her bed with her arms folded behind her head. Mackenzie and Brenna were fine – she didn't have to live with them. But she felt as though speaking of Jareth exclusively in their room wouldn't be the wisest of ideas, what with the GK on high alert from the announcement as he was. Her hand absentmindedly wandered underneath her pillow where she had stashed the feather and his response the previous day to hide it from Maddie's prying eyes.

It was warm.

Frowning, Sarah surreptitiously pulled it out to look at it. There was a new message underneath the other two:

_Your floor is rather hard, you impertinent brat. Expect repercussions. _

Expect repercussions? Sarah raised an eyebrow at the parchment, which had gone cool now that the message had been read. Before she could wonder about the possible consequences of her actions, her train of thought was interrupted by a satisfying mental image of the Goblin King soaking his bruised buttocks in an ice bath. She snorted.

"Something funny?" Maddie asked from the door, where she was putting on a lightweight jacket.

"What?"

"You laughed just now."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sarah grinned into her pillow, her hand sliding back under it to hide the feather and letter once again.

"Hmm. Alright." Maddie's tone was skeptical. "I'm going now, don't go all crazy while I'm gone."

"Have a good time!"

It wasn't until after the door was shut and Maddie's footsteps fading down the hallway that Sarah sprang up out of her bed, holding Jareth's response in her hand, struck by a sudden inspiration. She went to her desk and pulled a pen out of one of the drawers, and, placing the parchment on the desktop, she sat down to write her own response.

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><p><strong>ah, my goodness, so entertaining. And while I love those juicy "Sarah and Jareth meet again" scenes, I felt as though her pushing him off her bed would be a touch more appropriate.<strong>

**Thank you to those who reviewed! TriciaRio - I'm not graduating from there myself, but a friend is this year, so while I'm not all that familiar with the surrounding area, I might be able to incorporate a thing or two based on the stories she tells me ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry this took so terribly long!**

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><p><span>In Which Revenge is Exacted. Kind Of.<span>

Somewhere outside of her window, an owl was hooting.

This didn't fully register with Sarah until she remembered that it was in the middle of the day, not to mention that owls didn't exactly thrive on campus. She looked up.

And laughed.

The tree outside of their dorm room was a tall one, yes. So tall that its branches swept up to the fourth floor of the dorm, where she and Maddie shared a room. However, its branches towards the top were thin, and weren't exactly meant to support the weight of any bird, let alone a good-sized owl. And so this certain barn owl had perched on one of these slender branches, and was currently bending it in half, bouncing up and down with each gust of wind.

Smirking, Sarah cracked her window, but only enough to let her voice out.

"Am I supposed to let you in?"

She took his screech to mean something along the lines of_, you sure as hell had better let me in!_

"Hmm." She tapped her lips with her pencil thoughtfully, which caused the dark owl-eyes to go wide. "I thought I was supposed to be expecting repercussions. So why would I ever let you in?"

He shuffled on his branch as it dipped dangerously low, and gave her what she supposed was his most winning look.

And damn, but it was a cute one.

"Oh, all _right_," she huffed, bracing her hands against the window to slide it up.

He moved faster than she thought he would, but she was quicker still. Just when he was inches from soaring into her room and doing God-knows-what to her, she slammed the window shut completely. The sound he made when he smashed headfirst into the pane of glass was a satisfying one indeed. There was a small squelching sound as he slid down the window, and then he tumbled out of sight.

_Should I be worried? Nah…_

Sarah sauntered across her room with a silly little grin on her face, over to the parchment on her desk. Picking up the pen she had left there earlier this morning, she penned another response.

_Sarah: 2. GK: 0_

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><p>Brenna thundered upstairs a few moments later.<p>

"Yo, Sar!"

"Yeah?" She turned in her swivel chair to look at her, confused.

"There's some lost-looking guy outside downstairs with a broken nose. Says he's looking for you."

She pursed her lips irritably. She had to hand it to him, he knew the ways to box her into a corner. Refuse, and she'd have to deal with Brenna's prodding. Accept…she'd still have to deal with it, but at least she'd be able to do it without a guilty conscious. A broken nose, Brenna had said? She frowned; he was a King, capable of punting Goblins into a bog miles away, magically talented enough to drug peaches and build a room of never-ending staircases!

_Should I be worried? Maybe…_

With a growl, she gracelessly stomped downstairs with a confused-looking Brenna in tow, down the main hall, into the lobby, and out into the afternoon sun. And sure enough, the Goblin King was leaning against the wall, a hand up to his bleeding nose, looking normal enough by Aboveground standards, but obviously (or maybe it was just obvious to her) still tainted with the touch of otherworldly magic. As she watched, a passing student approached him with a concerned expression but scurried away just as quickly without a backward glance as he was sent off with some vicious retort or other.

Oh, dear.

Brenna had noticed, too. She looked at Sarah with raised eyebrows.

"Interesting friend, there, Sarah."

"He's not my friend," she retorted quickly, folding her arms as she regarded him. He had finally noticed that she was there, turning his head to watch her with a strange mix of disdain, anger, hurt, and kindness. Each emotion took a turn on his face until anger won out, and he scowled at her outright.

"Er, I'll leave you to a nice chat then," Brenna muttered, obviously intimidated. But as Sarah stepped forward, she still remained, and she felt a rush of gratitude for her friend for not ditching her completely in this situation.

Of course, she had momentarily forgotten who she was dealing with. All the mortals in the world couldn't have helped her. But seeing him bleeding all over the place had put in her mind thoughts of a man, not of some Underground being who could do anything with his power, quite an impressive thought indeed.

And Jareth was as much a man as a lion was a kitten.

As soon as she was within reaching distance, his hand shot out faster than she would have believed, closing firmly around her arm. She was dimly aware of Brenna yelling something before she had the dizzying sensation of pitching headfirst over the first hill of a rollercoaster. And then they were settled in a familiar circular room filled to the brim with dirty creatures who all cheered at her appearance.

Jareth smirked down at her, all traces of a "broken" nose gone completely.

"I believe this ups my score to one, Princess."

She arched an eyebrow. "Stylish, I'll admit. But it wasn't as funny as you flying into a window."

A gasp rippled through the room. "His majesty flew into a window?"

"A window?"

"What's a window?"

Chaos ensued. Jareth looked completely defeated. Sarah took the opportunity to smirk back.

"And I believe this ups my score to three."

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><p><strong>Hee hee hee. Sarah's a brat. Alternatively titled, "The Things Your Author Does to Avoid Writing Her Speech".<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**I'll have you know, this story entertains the pants off of me. And yet, I still own none of it.**

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><p><span>In Which Goblins Are Annoying Dirty Little Berks.<span>

"That's _my_ throne you're sitting on. Off."

Sarah grinned, hooking one of her legs over the arm of the throne cockily as she propped up her chin in her hand. "Ner ner ner."

His face flushed. It actually _flushed_! That had to be worth, what, twenty points at least.

"Girlie not right in the head…"

"Queenie insane."

The smile sliding off her face, Sarah looked away from where Jareth stood a few feet in front of, practically quivering with fury (though with the most endearing look of puzzlement mixed in on his face) to glower at the few goblins left scattered about (to save face, Jareth had had to bog at least half the room). Apparently fearing that she was mentally unbalanced, they quavered under her stare.

"Queenie?" She looked back at Jareth. "_Queenie_?"

"I assure you," he quipped dryly, "they draw their own conclusions."

"Conclusions from what, I wonder."

They regarded each other in silence for a while, until Jareth smirked.

"You know, if you must insist on sitting there…" he flicked his wrist and drew a crystal out of the air, "…you may as well do it the proper way."

"What-"

His hand blurred, and the crystal hit her with a shower of sparks and _(how typical) _glitter. Sarah looked down at herself and sputtered indignantly.

Breeches. Tight, tight leggings...whatever they were, they were on her legs, partially covered by knee-high, black leather boots. Her comfortable university sweatshirt had been traded in for an equally comfortably white poet's shirt, though the neckline of it plunged practically to her navel. With a squeak, Sarah clutched the fabric together, lifting her head to glower at her offender, who looked ridiculously pleased with himself as his goblins snickered at his heels.

"Change me back, right now!"

Back in his element now that he had humiliated her in front of his subjects, he sauntered forward. "You're the one who wanted to sit in the throne, precious thing. You might as well play the part." She sat up nervously, one hand still twisted around the neckline of the shirt cautiously, leaning away from him as he leaned forward, resting his hands on the arm of the chair her legs had been thrown over seconds before. "I thought you liked to play parts."

"Obviously not anymore. I'm a psychology major, not drama." She inched away slowly.

A teasing light flickered behind his eyes. "Why, Sarah, if you don't stop moving over like that, I'll have to assume you're inviting me to sit down."

Her own eyes narrowed. "Don't you d-"

But he had already sat next to her, and although he was fairly narrow as far as build was concerned, and as big as the throne was, it hadn't really been built to seat two. She made to spring up, but he had already wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back, unbalancing her, which ended up with her half-draped across his lap.

He was smiling, and it caught her off guard for a moment – it was a genuine smile, not one born from taunting or sarcastic quips. One arm draped around the back of the throne, and the other around her shoulders. The touch brought her back to the situation at hand. Right.

She noticed that he wasn't watching her face, and remembered too late the gaping shirt. Her cheeks blazing, she looked down to see that the wide neckline had nearly slid completely off her shoulders, leaving her practically bare from the waist up. _Shit._

"You…you look somewhere else!" she snapped, batting his arm away from her shoulders to free her own arms, raising her hands to pull the shirt back up onto her shoulders. He complied willingly enough, tipping his head back and smiling, his eyes closed. She had no doubt what he was replaying in his mind, and glowered at his smug face angrily.

A quiet titter drew her attention, and she turned her head to glare back at the goblins who were staring at her, their eyes wide and their hands over their mouths, faces frozen in comical expressions.

"What?" She spat acidly.

One of the braver souls lowered his hands. "Queenie…Queenie…"

"Queenie _what_?"

He quailed and shuffled back, seeming to lose his nerve. She needn't have worried, however, because another one burst out, unable to control himself.

"Queenie has big boobies!"

Jareth snorted in her ear, his chest shaking with silent laughter as the goblins scurried away, their raucous laughter bouncing off the stone walls. Sarah did nothing – her mortification had glued her to the spot, and she could only glare angrily as the last one hightailed it out of her sight.

"Those goblins, I really don't know where they get such dirty minds…"

Sarah turned her head to glower at him. "Where, indeed."

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><p><strong>Where indeed, muahahahaha. <strong>

**Evil laughter aside, I'm so glad that people enjoy this story, even though the characters are comically OOC at most times. **


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